Why would a reasonably intelligent
person become a member of a
strange-sounding and barely-known movement which most people who have heard of
it are unsure whether its adherents believe in God or not? Why can’t I just concern myself with the
current needs and issues in the world instead of turning to religion, which has
never done any good anyway, and is totally irrelevant in today’s world? And if I have to turn to religion (read: superstition)
at all, why isn’t Christianity (or Buddhism, if I need to get a little weird)
good enough for me, especially since Bahá’ís believe all religions are valid
anyway? Good questions! And I shall endeavour to answer them.
Bahá’ís do in fact believe that
religions are divinely-inspired, and regard them all as chapters in an
ever-unfolding saga of one phenomenon, since if there is only one God, the
religions established in His name must be referring to the same thing. The vision of the Bahá’í Faith is that
religious revelation is progressive, needing to be renewed from time to time to
meet the needs of an ever-advancing civilization.
My hat is off to all those who reject
organized religion as everything from fairy tales to oppression to
war-mongering. I agree absolutely. I also absolutely agree with media figures
such as Bill Maher and the late George Carlin who attack religion harshly as a
source of evil in our time. Religion
should be a source of light and inspiration, comfort and joy, peace and
security, enlightenment and truth, and if it is not, to the devil with it!
Yet we are endowed with a perception
of a reality beyond what we can perceive with our senses; as far as we know,
the only creatures given the capacity to do so, and religion persists in spite
of a lot of very intelligent people telling us it’s an arkload of superstition.
I
would love to get into my own spiritual journey, but another time. Suffice it to say it was long and arduous,
and continues in the present day. But
back to why Bahá’í?
I have always leaned toward the
mystical essence in my study of any religion or spiritual tradition, and found
them remarkably similar in their basic principles. And one of these resemblances is, that in one
way or another, seekers have always been encouraged to separate themselves from
the world and find God in contemplative solitude.
But Bahá’u’lláh said no! In this day and age, we have work to do in
this world to ensure the progress of our souls, and we must do this
socially. The idea is that we should not
be looking for individual salvation; rather the salvation of us all. The thousand-year mission of the Bahá’ís, (should
we accept it) is to effect the organic unity of the entire human race. This is where people laugh at the absurdity
of this fanciful idea, and it is a daunting task, especially since Bahá’u’lláah
goes on to say that we can’t even find two people who are united, never mind
pushing seven billion.
And yet! (and here I am finally approaching
the heart of the matter) as in the Lord’s Prayer (which Bahá’ís understand
Jesus Christ directed not exactly at the Almighty but to Bahá’u’lláh – again for
another time) it says “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven” – Bahá’u’lláh not only gives this job over to humanity (it just got a
whole lot harder than expecting God to do it in answer to our prayers), but lo
and behold! He gave us a blueprint of how to do it! This is absolutely new in the history of
religion – unprecedented and uncontemplated, and more astonishing than anything
in the Ten Commandments or the Beatitudes.
And ever since it was announced, Bahá’ís have been working with this blueprint
under the guidance of the Institutions of the Faith (to keep up the synergy of
us all being on the same page), and we are working like ants, quietly and
persistently (CNN hasn’t given us any attention) in the year 174 of this 1,000
year Impossible Mission.
Now the one thing that keeps us on
this mad task, the pivot and cornerstone of it all, is the acceptance that Bahá’u’lláh
is who He says He is, the latest in a series of Messengers with a revelation
directly from God, a series with a new installment every thousand years or so. It’s what keeps the engine purring.
